Berkeley, CA - May 3, 2017 - Bonsai, provider of an AI platform that empowers enterprises to build and deploy intelligent systems, today announced that it has raised $7.6 million as an extension to its recent A round of funding, bringing the total amount raised to date to $13.6 million. Microsoft Ventures and existing investor NEA co-led the investment with participation from strategic investors ABB Technology Ventures, Samsung NEXT and Siemens.

This additional investment will be used for continued product innovation and accelerated customer engagement. Highlighting this focus, Bonsai today introduced the Bonsai Early Access Program: https://bons.ai/blog/bonsai-artificial-intelligence-in-enterprises. This new customer program works with enterprises in industries such as robotics, manufacturing, retail, logistics and energy to jointly design, build and deploy AI models using the Bonsai Platform.

Bringing together expertise in neuroscience and developer platforms, Bonsai was founded in 2014 by Mark Hammond and Keen Browne with the vision of making intelligence a core component of every hardware and software application. Recognizing the shortage of data science talent capable of building sophisticated AI models, they developed a platform that abstracts away the complexity of libraries like TensorFlow, making the programming and management of AI models more accessible to developers and enterprises. Bonsai has been recognized as an MIT Sloan CIO Symposium Innovation Showcase finalist, one of CB Insights AI 100 and a Strata+Hadoop World Startup Showcase winner.

“The Bonsai Platform uniquely harnesses the power of complex machine learning libraries and algorithms in a way that is accessible to enterprises,” said Mark Hammond, co-founder and CEO of Bonsai. “With the strategic funding announced today, and the early interest we are seeing in the market, we are excited to accelerate the innovations, engagement and solutions development work required for our customers to realize the significant impact AI can deliver to their business.”

Investor Quotes

“Microsoft aims to democratize AI, and Bonsai is executing on this vision by abstracting away the complexity of machine learning tools, enabling developers and enterprises to more efficiently program intelligence,” said Nagraj Kashyap, corporate vice president at Microsoft Ventures. “Bonsai’s vision and focus make it a great addition to our AI fund. We believe Bonsai has the technology and team to drive positive societal and business impact, helping people and machines work better together.”

“Bonsai is bringing to market a fundamentally different approach to building AI for the enterprise,” said Forest Baskett, NEA General Partner. “They have a vision that makes AI accessible to domain experts without AI training and a stellar team with strong AI expertise. We’re excited to continue partnering with them to help accelerate growth and expand the reach of their platform.”

About Bonsai

Bonsai offers an AI platform that empowers enterprises to build and deploy intelligent systems. By completely automating the management of complex machine learning libraries and algorithms, Bonsai enables enterprises to program AI models that improve system control and enhance real-time decision support. Businesses use these models today to increase automation and improve operational efficiency of industrial systems including robotics, manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, energy and utilities. Based in Berkeley, CA, Bonsai is backed by leading investors including NEA, Microsoft Ventures, ABB, Samsung NEXT and Siemens. To learn more, please visit: https://bons.ai/ or follow on Twitter @BonsaiAI.